


Work in progress

by Drago



Category: Shameless (US)
Genre: Angst, Happy Ending, M/M, Sandy/Mickey friendship, Someone called it an Ian bash, sad boy hour, so be warned lol
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-20
Updated: 2020-12-20
Packaged: 2021-03-11 00:15:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,604
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28185975
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Drago/pseuds/Drago
Summary: Ian is angry, Mickey feels underappreciated, and Sandy is tired of their shit.
Relationships: Debbie Gallagher/Sandy Milkovich, Ian Gallagher/Mickey Milkovich
Comments: 16
Kudos: 106





	Work in progress

**Author's Note:**

> hey, my sad ass wrote it in like an hour or so. at least it's something.

Mickey is snoring and snuffling quietly as he sleeps, and it would be cute if Ian wasn’t so mad. Mickey sleeps like a man after a ten hour shift, except Ian’s husband had done shit all throughout the day. Probably watched TV, ate junk food and jerked off while Ian was working like a slave to provide for them. It angers him so much that he wants to shake Mickey awake just to yell at him, but Franny and Liam are sleeping, so he has to stew in silence. He should be sleeping too, seeing as he is the one who has to get up at six in the fucking morning. Granted, Mickey wakes up soon after, but not because he has to go to work, of course not, his only attempt at getting a real job was a complete disaster. For the first time since they got married Ian is glad Mickey didn’t change his last name to “Gallagher”. They’d probably fire Ian if they knew he is married to someone like Mickey. Now he has to listen to his boss constantly joking about Mick’s clusterfuck of an interview, but at least he can pretend it doesn’t bother him. But it does, it does bother him that his husband can’t go through something as simple as a job interview at Amazon without screwing up. They hire basically anyone who can work, because the pay is so shitty people know better than to work for them. But not Mickey, he can’t pretend for fifteen fucking minutes to be a mostly normal fucking person. Ian knows people take one look at his husband and immediately judge him, but Mickey had years to fix that. They all struggled with normalcy, yet they somehow managed to get better. All of them but Mickey.  
He works himself up so much that he can’t fall asleep for a long time, so he wakes up later than he should and doesn’t give Mickey his morning kiss, too focused on getting dressed and eating toast in under ten minutes. Unemployed husbands don’t get kisses anyway.  
After work, which is even more frustrating now that he knows he won’t be getting the whole pay for the unforeseeable future, he buys a six-pack of beer that Mickey hates. Ian doesn’t like it either, but he can drink it in a pinch. Mickey won’t ever touch it. He knows it’s petty, but he is too tired to care.  
He doesn’t get to see Mickey’s angry face when he comes back because his husband isn’t even home and no one can tell Ian where he could find him. Sandy probably knows, but she just scoffs at him and goes back to Debbie’s room, leaving him alone with Lip. Which is just as well since he wants to complain to his brother, maybe ask for another advice.  
He starts with, “I wish Mickey would act his age.”  
“How do you mean?”  
“Oh, you know, provide for his family? In a legal way?”  
Lip scrunches his eyebrows in confusion, “But you always knew he never had an honest job before.”  
“Yeah, and he still says illegal shit always worked for him,” Ian says, frustrated that even his own brother doesn’t seem to get it. “But I don’t want him back in prison!”  
“You do know that he literally paid for your wedding with… uh… illegally obtained money, right?” another voice that isn’t Lip’s replies, and he doesn’t need to turn around to know it’s Sandy.  
“Have you been eavesdropping, _Sandy_?”  
“I sure was, gingernut, I heard you talking shit about my favourite cousin again, and I couldn’t resist. So. It was fine when he funded _your_ wedding with illegal money, but it isn’t anymore? Why, because you suddenly changed your mind? How is that fucking fair?”  
“We’re no longer kids, alright, we decided to save up for our own place, and he spent all of our money on God knows what, and he isn’t contributing anything!”  
“From what I heard you decided that you need to move out all on your own. Just like you decided that he needs to get a proper job. Mickey is used to living in cramped spaces.”  
“...and crime,” Lip adds with a smirk, “not sure what else were you expecting, honestly. Being a criminal is all Mickey knows and with his rap sheet? You had to know even Amazon won’t take him, he has zero experience.”  
“What a convenient fucking excuse, Mandy came from the same family, and she’s been working her ass off since she was a teen.”  
He thinks he hears Sandy mutter, _you used your parents as an excuse to break Mick’s heart, you dick_ , but out loud she says: “First of all, she was a whore for a while, not sure what she’s doing now. And secondly, even in families like ours girls are raised differently. We’re still expected to cook and take care of useless men. Have you even tried to help him with his resume?”  
“No, he didn’t ask for help, and...”  
“He knew you’d either get mad at him or make fun of him. You have no fucking idea how lucky you are that you had Fiona to take care of you. She showed you how to work hard. And w… Mickey never had that,” Sandy says with an edge to her voice. Ian can’t decide if she is about to hit him or cry. He never saw her cry before, but they aren’t exactly close.  
“Mickey’s mom...”  
“Was a drug addict and a whore. You didn’t even know her, don’t act like you did. Do you know who took care of Terry’s kids when they were younger?”  
Ian shrugs. He’d say Mandy, but she is the youngest, so she probably isn’t who Sandy means.  
“Mickey did. Ever since he was old enough to steal and sell drugs. His brothers and cousins would buy booze and weed with the money they made, but once Mickey was in the game he forced them to put away some of it for food and utilities. And they listened to him because they knew he is the smart one. Fuck you for making him feel useless and dumb because your idea of him changed,” with that, Sandy goes upstairs, probably to tell Debbie how much she hates Ian.  
“I’d add something, but she kinda said it all,” Lip mutters.  
“I’m not that bad.”  
“You’re not bad,” his brother says gently, like he is talking to a child. “But you usually demand instead of asking, and you aren’t even trying to understand him. Mickey would probably take it better if you tried talking to him about it without us around and, yeah, offered to help him.”  
Ian sulks in silence after that, offended that everyone seems to be on Mickey’s side.  
It doesn’t mean he doesn’t think about it.  
Maybe he should have approached it differently, talk about it when they were alone. He thought that Mickey would get the idea after they got married and would find a job without being prompted. That didn’t happen, and Ian’s frustration kept growing over the months, until it was too big to contain and he lashed out.  
So maybe he should be more understanding, but _he is right_ He knows he is. He doesn’t want to be a prison husband, and they probably wouldn’t even survive it. Mickey would wait, but Ian… well, he doesn’t want to check if he is strong enough to wait.  
Mickey is oddly elusive in the next few days, and when Ian checks their wedding box, he sees that his husband returned most, if not all, of their money. He almost feels guilty for a second. It’s obvious that Mickey doesn’t think of this money as theirs anymore – it’s Ian’s. But then the anger returns, there’s no way Mickey would be able to make so much money legally. So the next time he sees his husband, which happens to be in the kitchen, he goes off at him even though Lip, Debbie, Sandy and Liam are also in the room.  
“Why do you always have to pressure me into things,” Mickey asks tiredly once Ian is done ranting. “When have _I_ ever forced you to do anything?”  
“You forced me to get married,” it slips out. Ian doesn’t even mean it, he really doesn’t, but he knows it’s going to hurt. And it does, Mickey’s face falls and he spins around, quickly leaving the house. His phone and wallet are still on the table, but he doesn’t stop to grab them. He just leaves, and Ian is frozen to the spot, unable to move an inch. It’s Sandy who follows his husband, but not before shoving Ian into the wall with far more strength someone of her size should have.  
“That was really mean,” Liam says, his voice small and sad, reminding Ian that he is only ten.  
“Low-blow, Ian,” Debbie adds, as if Ian doesn’t know how much he just fucked up.

He waits and waits for Mickey to come home, but his meds don’t let him stay up the whole night and that’s how long his husband is gone. He comes back around noon – Ian called in sick to talk to him, but Sandy is with him and instead of going upstairs, they settle in the kitchen to talk. It’s only fair for him to eavesdrop on them, since Sandy did the exact same thing when he was talking to Lip. He wants to know what Mickey is thinking, but he knows the other man won’t tell him anything, especially now that Ian hurt him so much.  
“...don’t think it’s gonna work,” Mickey’s voice is quiet, even though he must think that Ian is at work. He knows better than to talk loudly about his issues in this neighbourhood. “He always finds something to complain about, there’s always something wrong with me. Ever since we were kids. Why can’t he just enjoy the fucking moment? It’s fucking exhausting, always feeling like a piece of shit. I bet his other boyfriends were all fucking proper.”  
“He means well,” Ian is surprised to hear Sandy defend him, “I think. But he is a selfish prick, and I don’t know how you lasted this long.” That’s more like the Sandy he knows.  
“Yeah, well. I’m fucked up.”  
“Aren’t we all… Listen, just say the word if you want to ditch him, I’ll come with you, we can rent something together if you don’t want to go back to Terry’s house.”  
“What about Debbie?”  
“Bros before hoes, bitch! And she would understand, she thinks that Ian is too harsh on you. But maybe it will get better now that you have a job?”  
“Right,” Mickey snorts loudly. “He will find something else to complain about, just watch.”  
“Like I said, we can leave.”  
Ian decides to interrupt then, not liking the direction their conversation is heading. He enters the kitchen, trying to smile like he didn’t just hear his husband contemplating a divorce. He is going to make things right.  
Before he can kiss Mickey, because that’s what he wants the most, the other man quickly says, “I got a job, hope you’re fucking happy,” and bolts again. Ian tries to follow, but Sandy trips him. He slams into the floor face first.  
“Stay down,” she orders. “I helped him get a job, but if I hear you complain about anything ever again I’m going to cut your dick off and shove it up your own ass. Got it?”  
“Y...yes.”  
He stays on the floor even after Sandy leaves to do God knows what since she doesn’t seem to have a job. But Mickey apparently does. It’s honestly the last thing Ian expected to happen, so maybe he is in shock and that’s why he isn’t happy about it. Maybe it will come to him later, once he isn’t lying on the cold, dirty floor. They really need to clean it.  
It’s Carl who peels him off the floor about an hour later, looking at Ian’s face for any signs of a mental breakdown. He isn’t having one, he just feels shitty about himself.  
Neither Sandy nor Mickey are home for dinner, but Debbie is able to give him more details about his husband’s new job. Apparently Sandy fucked some old guy when she was fifteen, desperately hoping that liking girls is just a phase, and she took some rather incriminating pictures while he was asleep. She held onto them in case she needed a favour, and she finally used it to get Mickey a job. The old dude was married back then, and he is still running a bar with his now ex-wife. But Sandy didn’t go to him, she went to his ex-wife, crying about her lost virginity (a lie) and the trauma she suffered (mostly a lie) from their encounter.  
“The wife promised to keep Mickey for a year if he doesn’t insult clients _too much_. She also thinks he is thuggishly charming, so Mickey is good as long as he doesn’t break anyone’s face without a good reason.”  
“Who would find Mickey charming? Except for me.”  
“Uh, this lady? And other men, probably,” Debbie shrugs, but she is watching Ian warily. “It’s a gay-friendly bar. Not full on gay bar, but it’s popular among slightly older gay men.”  
“Are you fucking kidding me?”  
“It’s legal and the pay is alright. He will be making more than you after the first month.”  
“But...” he stops before he can complain about it. Fuck, Sandy was right. It’s been a day since Mickey got hired, and Ian is already unhappy with something.  
It’s not that bad, he tells himself, Mickey might be absurdly hot, but he doesn’t know it and he won’t find someone to run away with just because he’ll be surrounded by gay men. They might not even be attractive.  
For Ian, working in a gay club isn’t a fond memory. In fact, he hates it with passion. But Mickey isn’t a bipolar teenager, he isn’t naive enough to think that people flirting with him want him for something more than sex. It’s going to be okay, Ian just has to show Mickey how sorry he is.  
He starts by waking up when Mickey comes back smelling of beer and cigarettes, helps him undress and showers with him despite Mickey’s objections. When he tries to touch Mickey’s soft cock, his husband pulls away, “Don’t.”  
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it. I love you so much, but I’m… I’m too good at hurting you.”  
“Yeah.”  
“I will be better to you, nicer.”  
“Because I did what you wanted, right?”  
“No, I realized I fucked up.”  
“But you apologized only after I got a job.”  
“I’m stubborn,” Ian helplessly admits, reaching out to touch Mickey’s face. His eyes are sad, but he doesn’t pull away this time, allowing Ian to kiss him. “I push too much, but I’ll work on it.”  
“You haven’t in ten years.”  
“I will now. We both have to try, I’m not letting you go.”  
He dries Mickey’s skin with the softest towel he can find, trying to keep his touch innocent, although his own dick fattens slightly at the sight in front of him. But Mickey told him ‘no’, and he is going to respect that.  
Ian knows they will be okay when Mickey allows him to cuddle him from behind, like they usually do when they’re too tired to have sex. His husband is a warm, solid weight in his arms, and Ian can’t believe he almost sabotaged their marriage.

**Author's Note:**

> *The money Mickey returned was earned illegally, Sandy got him a job after Ian went off on him again.


End file.
